Only one set of players and coaches from any given collegiate athletic program that’s ever existed can claim they were on its first roster. Allison Coomey can now claim she’s done both. Lacing up for the inaugural roster on the former DI Niagara Purple Eagles from 1998 to 2002, she’s now been tasked with building and leading the brand-new DI women’s hockey program at the University of Delaware.
Coomey brings nearly two decades of assistant coaching experience to Newark, but her unique competitive edge is understanding exactly what type of player will thrive in a new program. The Ice Garden chatted with Coomey to learn about the opportunities and challenges that come from building the first team, her love of collegiate athletics, and gets special insight about her coaching style from one of her former (now professional) players!
“I think this opportunity speaks to somebody who wants to come in and make their mark,” Coomey says, discussing the type of player she’s looking for. With her experience building a team, Coomey knows that buy-in will be key to a successful Blue Hens program in the future, and her winning career history proves her ability to acquire it.
Every team ascended in their respective rankings with Coomey behind the bench. In her early career, she helped Plattsburgh reach the NCAA semifinals and elevated a young NCAA BU program to five Hockey East Championship wins and six national tournament appearances (although having a fresh gold medalist Marie Philip-Poulin on the roster doesn’t hurt). Coomey was then tasked with refreshing Penn State’s program alongside Jeff Kampersal from 2017 to 2023, where she pushed several players into CHA honors, coached four Olympians, and earned AHCA’s Women’s Assistant Coach Award in 2019.
Coomey’s gift for cultivating player relationships and integrating them into winning systems extends beyond collegiate hockey. Since 2005, she has been a valuable asset to USA Hockey, serving on seven different selection committees for teams ranging from U18 nationals to Olympic centralization groups. Her role has evolved to include scouting at the highest level, culminating in her position as pre-scout for Team USA during their silver medal run at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. But it’s that collegiate environment that continues to captivate her and where she remains.
“There’s just so much that happens in-between your 18 to 22 years of age and how you grow as a human being,” Coomey says.“Our ability to use this sport as a way for everyone to understand each other maybe a little bit more.”
She elaborates further on the atmosphere created by bringing 20+ people together: “You’re already set on a team where you might not have the same views as other people and I think learning from each other is so important and understanding how to communicate with one another is so important. and how those things can help you really propel into a championship team, or a team that maybe goes further than they ever have because of all of those things. I think that’s the coolest part, aside from the light bulb moments that go off, when you do something that you’ve never done before. To me, that’s probably the biggest thing – because it’s a team sport you can only go [that] far together.”
This quote and her distinguished career history demonstrate that Coomey is motivated by the impossible. Being part of a brand new team, whether as a player or coach, is the type of challenging environment where she performs at her best.
But the next question that comes to mind for a coach that’s spent nearly 20 years as an assistant is: “why now?” Coomey reflects and says, “I don’t know if there is necessarily ever a feeling of I need to feel ready to be a head coach, honestly, I approached every opportunity as just – I really enjoy what I’m doing…I never really looked at it as like I need to do this this and this and then I’ll be ready to be a head coach. I just feel like I was able to be a little bit more confident – and a lot of that was just the experiences I went through at different places and working with different people.”
The main difference in these two roles, in Coomey’s opinion, comes down to owning the gavel. “You could have your conversations with the head coach but they’re ultimately the one that’s going to make that decision and it also ultimately falls on them, so awareness of that huge responsibility,” she says. Coomey affirms further, “I’m not going into this lightly – I understand the realm. I think with the years of experience that’s allowed me to have that perspective a little bit more even though I haven’t been a head coach.”
Having developed a clear vision of leadership through her years of experience, Coomey’s decision to take the helm at Delaware came down to waiting for the right opportunity. With the University’s commitment to growing their women’s hockey program, including a professional partnership with the Philadelphia Flyers, combined with its strong academic reputation, strategic location, and a personal connection – Coomey was sold.
“The campus is beautiful, it’s definitely like a college town so you get that kind of feel, which you know I’ve seen in some of the schools I’ve been to and not in others,” Coomey says, outlining her favorite aspects of the university. “And then just the location piece: a big part of like what I’m trying to sell to recruits that maybe are from Canada or Europe or Western United States is the fact that you can get this place. It’s pretty accessible so you can get here easily, whether you’re flying to Philly or you’re flying to Baltimore and obviously both of those places are an easy drive from here.”
Coomey continues, “I think that’s a big piece and obviously the education itself it’s a great institution that way. I’ve been fortunate to work at programs that have sold the importance of athletics and academics and I think Delaware definitely fits that mold.”
She adds Delaware offers the same resources available to the ones she’s familiar with coming from a Big 10 school, including nutritionists, sport psychologists and medical staff. This reinforced her belief in Delaware’s focus on the student-athletes well being on and off the ice.
“If you’re a really good player, you can come in and help the program grow and bottom line we’re I’m looking for people that are excited about something like that.” -Allison Coomey
But once she gets her first roster of 20+ players on campus, how will she approach molding them into a complete unit? Most coaches rely on veteran players to help pass down established team culture to newcomers and only need to worry about five to six new players at time. But Coomey faces a unique challenge of not only building that culture from scratch, but instilling it into an entire group all at once. Here, she leans on her decades of experience, passion for education while seeking players with an appetite to be part of something new and create a legacy.
“If you’re a really good player, you can come in and help the program grow and bottom line we’re I’m looking for people that are excited about something like that,” Coomey explains. “An opportunity to just be the first is really cool and to help it grow and to be great teammates and work hard. Obviously I came here because I want to win so that’s the end goal, but the only way we’re going to get there is if we have people that are buying into what’s going on and have the ability to work with one another to make that happen.”
Coomey’s first hurdle to any successful program is acquiring complete buy-in from her players. She boils this down to trust, communication and authentic relationships. It’s something that every player craves, every coach attempts but very few teams actually get right. Any coach or player reading this knows how difficult it is to win back each others’ trust once it’s been broken.
“Our job depends on winning and so it is very hard to not be so focused on the next game and the next thing,” Coomey explains. “We’ve got to do this and all those set things that you need to do to win a hockey game, but if you don’t get the buy-in from the players that are actually playing the game then that disconnect might happen.
[Its] important for me that I build relationships with the players I’m coaching because I need to know that it’s a mutual thing: they need to know that they can trust what I’m telling them and then when I’m putting them out on the ice, I can trust that they’re going to do their job to the best of their ability.”
Coomey stamps, “Everybody’s different and everyone’s role is different but that relationship is so important and that’s why we coach, that’s why I coach college athletics for so long.”
While coaching philosophies often sound impressive on paper, the true measure of excellence lies in execution. The reality of Coomey’s excellence emerges in a conversation with former Nittany Lion and current Ottawa Charge reserve defender, Jessica Adolfsson. Not only in the comments she shared about her former coach, but unmistakably reflected through her maturity and confidence as a teammate.
“As one of Coomey’s former players, I can attest to her remarkable courage in leading with a soft leadership style while maintaining high standards of performance,” says Adolfsson. “She always had a way of making me feel supported and valued, even when pushing me to my limits. Her ability to balance empathy and accountability inspired me to strive for excellence both on and off the ice.”
During my own personal time playing alongside Adolfsson in Sweden, I believe I experienced the ripple effects of Coomey’s influence. An accomplished professional defender with eight years of experience on Team Sweden’s U-18 and senior national team, Adolfsson demonstrated the same blend of fundamentals and creative instincts that Coomey champions. This was particularly evident in her patient, intelligent approach to the game and her ability to read situations and adapt while staying true to the playbook.
But perhaps more telling was Adolfsson’s leadership off the ice. When I arrived in Sweden, unable to play until my paperwork cleared, she reached out and helped me integrate into the local area and team seamlessly. These small acts of leadership reflected the same culture of support and inclusion that Coomey likely instilled in her players. After hearing her comments about Coomey, I’m certain that she gave Adolfsson an environment that allowed her to grow into the player and person she is today.
The two-time Riksserien champion emphasizes how Coomey’s coaching style fostered this environment of trust and individual growth. Speaking from experience, she says, “She truly cared about us and what’s best for everyone on the team regardless of role or playing time [and] she was always big on the fundamentals – she let each player be in their natural sense, which was nice…she was very open to experiment what fit each player in collaboration to the playbook.”
When a player who likely gets a lot of playing time remarks on a coach’s ability to do what’s best for players, regardless of role or playing time, it’s quite telling of Coomey’s virtuosity. Normally, players with ice time get plenty of attention so that sort of comment comes from a player without loads of ice time saying something like, “even though I didn’t play a lot, my coach still cares about me.” Adolfsson’s comments reveal not only Coomey’s genuine care for her players but also highlight her elite ability to toe the line between letting players be themselves while molding them into the nation’s most disciplined defensive unit at the time.
Her combination of experience – developing elite athletes within USA Hockey while mentoring collegiate players – makes Coomey uniquely qualified to build Delaware’s program from the ground up. She brings a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to succeed as a student-athlete from helping players adjust to young adult life to preparing athletes for international competition. She also has a personal connection to what it feels like to step into that locker room on day one. This perspective will be invaluable as she evaluates potential Blue Hens – she can spot the players who will embrace the challenge of being first.
Coomey reminisces, “If could replicate that experience to the group that’s coming in here I would do so, because there were times where I remember looking around the locker room and being like there’s no other place I’d want to be because I have the best teammates and the best friends – and that’s really what I want for this group. I want them to enjoy coming to the rink every day enjoy working hard and then the rewards will come but they’re not going to remember the Championships they’re going to remember the experience they had with their fellow teammates so yeah being in the first it’s awesome be the first.”
Coomey and the Blue Hens will make their debut later this year in Fall, 2025.
